I Just Need a Little Help

Many people think that the campus Disability Resources (DR) office is only for students with major, life-long disabilities.

That's not true. Disability Resources works with a wide range of students who have all levels of disabilities and conditions, permanent or temporary.1

An example would be Julie, who has limited use of her left hand due to an injury she had as a child. She can do most of her work in school just fine, but finds that she can't type fast in an Accounting class which requires a certain typing speed.

Julie could try to do it on her own and struggle through it, but the Disability Resources office might have tools or technology that could help her with the typing task that she hadn't known about.

So, something that a student might think is minor, might actually impact one or more unanticipated "major life activity"2 in college. Think about such activities as:

Taking lecture notes or typing papers

Getting between classes in time

Keeping up with reading assignments, with vision in one eye

Hearing class discussions, with mild hearing loss or hearing in one ear

Even though you don't think you'd use DR throughout your time at college, because you have a "small" disability, it's still a good idea to contact them and register with the office just in case.

The Americans with Disabilities Act protects people with disabilities from discrimination in school and work. If you register with DR, they can verify that you do have a disability and are protected.

1 A 2014 ruling by the Fourth Circuit Court in 2014 determined that the ADA Amendments Act considers severe temporary impairments (those of 6 months or less) to be “disabilities” and protects people who have them [Summers vs. Altarum Institute Corp., No. 13-1645 (4th Cir. January 23, 2014)].2 Major life activities are described in the Americans with Disabilities Act

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